TT to host Caricom meeting on CSME

UPDATE:

The Prime Minister has announced that TT will host a special heads of government meeting of Caricom in mid- November to discuss the Caribbean Single Market and Economy.
Dr Rowley said while the Caricom market is a major marketplace for TT, several Caricom member states, such as the Bahamas, have questioned the relevance of the CSME.

“The Bahamas has come out in front and said, ‘We want to remain part of Caricom, we are integrally part of Caricom, but let me tell you we are not interested in the SME.’ The new Jamaica government said, ‘We are going to examine the role that Caricom plays in Jamaica.’ We have the statement from the Jamaican government that ‘We are not aiming to leave Caricom, but the Jamaican people are asking very hard questions of the Jamaican government as to whether Caricom is to the benefit of the Jamaicans.’”

He said those two developments had prompted TT to get an agreement from the last Caricom meeting held in Jamaica to discuss the CSME and whether the region should aspire to having a single market as opposed to a single market and economy.

“I am to advise you now that there is to be held in TT, in mid-November, a special heads of government meeting of Caricom, at the request of TT, with a single item on the agenda: the Caricom single market and economy.

“This is of great interest to the people of TT, because we are possibly the major beneficiary of the Caricom economies. And if we are to grow in the way we are expected to grow, in the way that we are expecting to grow, when this facility is completed in the way that our country’s potential is to be realised, and if it is that we in the manufacturing sector, if we are to preserve what we have – we have to ensure that the Caricom market remains alive and remains our major marketplace.”

The PM was speaking at the sod-turning ceremony for the Nutrimix Group of Companies Next Generation Hatchery, Rivulet Road, Brechin Castle, Couva, yesterday.
On the hatchery, he said government is committed to a private-public partnership (PPP), in which it placed available acreage of state lands in the hands of the private sector for economic development.

“This land would facilitate this construction project that’s in close proximity to the port of Point Lisas and major highway network. It facilitates the development of this modern hatchery tha, on commissioning, will stabilise the already successful local poultry subsector and strengthen the ability of the subsector to grow and compete and become a foreign-exchange earner.”

He said there were other ways in which government could support the agricultural sector, including legislation which would “even the playing field so that local production is protected from unfair practices and other behaviours that distort the marketplace.

“You would have heard (Trade) Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon with respect to the standards which would allow us to protect our market from old chicken, where we are not a place for dumping the old food of other economies, but giving those we produce here a fighting or better chance to supply our local culinary tastes.”

ORIGINAL STORY:

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has says TT will host a special heads of government meeting of Caricom in mid-November to discuss the Caribbean Single Market and Economy(CSME).

He said while the Caricom market is a major market place for TT, several Caricom members states such as the Bahamas have questioned the role and the relevance of the CSME.

“The Bahamas has come out in front and said we want to remain part of Caricom, we are integrally part of Caricom but let me tell you we are not interested in the CSME.

The new Jamaica government said we are going to examine the role that Caricom plays in Jamaica. We have the statement from the Jamaican government that they are not aiming to leave Caricom but the Jamaican people are asking very hard questions of the Jamaican government as to whether Caricom is to the benefit of the Jamaicans.”